Sir Chris Hoy hopeful despite missing gold

Published on Sunday 27 March 2011 17:22

Sir Chris Hoy completed the penultimate Track Cycling World Championships before London 2012 without a gold medal, but encouraged by what awaits at the Olympic Games next summer.

For the first time since the 2003 World Championships in Stuttgart, four-time Olympic champion Hoy will return from the global showpiece without a world champion's rainbow jersey.

Hoy was 35 on the opening day of competition in Apeldoorn, Holland, and won bronze in the team sprint and individual sprint and claimed silver in the Keirin.

The ten-time world champion, though, was content with his haul and believes Great Britain are on track for success on home soil in 16 months' time.

He said: "On the whole I have to be pleased with my personal performances this week. It's been a solid week, but with the room for improvement. It gives us that hunger.

"It's a very difficult thing to be on top for four years leading up to the Olympic Games. I'm not trying to say I wouldn't like to have three gold medals around my neck after this week's performances, but we're close.

"We're not a million miles away from the best guys and with a few little tweaks we can definitely be there or thereabouts in 16 months' time."

Australia have once again been the standout nation, but Hoy was bullish.

He added: "It's been a really important World Championships for us. If you look at the medal table it may not be quite as rosy as we think it is, but we're not despondent by any stretch of the imagination. It's given us something to think about, but we're not down and we're definitely not out."

Entering yesterday's final day of competition - with just the women's Keirin and omnium of the ten Olympic events to be completed - Britain had a haul of eight medals from eight events.

For a team shorn of some of their top talent - Olympic champions Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas were absent due to their road commitments, Ed Clancy was ill and Lizzie Armitstead injured - and featuring, among other emerging talent, 18-year-old Laura Trott and 20-year-old Dani King, who became team pursuit world champions on their debuts, it has been an encouraging display.

Hoy added: "It's not as if we're just hanging on by our finger nails and everyone's going to retire after London. We've still got immense talent coming through. It pushes on the older riders and it gives riders like myself something to think about just to get into the team. You know that if you've got that place in the team it's because you've earned it and it's because you deserve it and if you get that place you've got a very good chance of being successful. It bodes well for the future."

The immediate future for Hoy is all about London, with one off-season and one full track campaign before his fourth Olympics. He added: "It's exciting.You feel like you've been in limbo a little bit in the last couple of years.

"The task now is to sharpen your focus down to training and competition, racing a bit more in smaller events just to keep that race sharpness. You can see the finishing line, you can see London on the horizon and that really does give you that extra inspiration."Meanwhile, Victoria Pendleton's World Championships ended with a whimper yesterday as she failed to qualify for the final of the Keirin. After requiring the repechage to progress to the second round, the 30-year-old from Stotfold, Bedfordshire, finished fourth with only three riders progressing.